Is XFCE The Future Desktop Of Choice?

Whether your Linux machine is a workhorse for day-to-day tasks, or a test installation on a virtual machine to play around with, you have probably used GNOME at some point. I you haven’t, then KDE or XFCE are close runners up. Until recent releases Canonical used GNOME as it’s default desktop environment for their vanilla Ubuntu builds. That changed when they brought Unity to the table, and all the customisable goodness you had with GNOME had been replaced with a rigid, MacOS-like affair.

Sure, GNOME isn’t dead. In fact it’s very much alive and has recently had a facelift in their latest offering, GNOME3. Don’t think that you have all that customisation potential back though, as whilst GNOME3 is beautiful (in my opinion), you’re stuck with the way it looks.

So what are your alternatives? You could go for the runner-up – KDE. It seems however, that KDE isn’t as lightweight as you would expect. If you have a powerful machine you probably won’t feel the pinch. Let’s remember for a second that for a lot of people, a Linux install is a new lease of life for aging hardware and low powered machines. There’s nothing like a bloated desktop environment to impede your now speedy old laptop.

Both desktop environments have their ups and downs, and each side will have their fans. Personally I was on the GNOME side, mostly because that’s what came with Ubuntu and I stuck with it. This would be the same for a lot of novice Linux users, however with Unity taking centre stage with vanilla Ubuntu, GNOME is at risk of losing it’s place to ~~MacOS~~ Unity.

XFCE – The New Contender

So we’ve seen the Coke and Pepsi of desktop environments, how about the lesser-known Virgin Cola? XFCE is by no means a new desktop, it’s been around for years, and has been available for Ubuntu users in the form of Xubuntu. XFCE is designed to be a lightweight environment, and is commonly suggested by enthusiasts when the imminent “Ubuntu is slow, how can I make it faster?” appears around various community forums.

I’ll have to admit, I asked a similar question after installing GNOME3 on my netbook, and sure enough, installing XFCE was one of the first suggestions. I had my doubts when offered this suggestion. I am a sucker for visuals, and last time I had checked, XFCE was butt-ugly in it’s default form. I’m pleased to report however, that it seems Virgin Cola has a new recipe. Those who have been using XFCE since this update will be thinking this is old news of course, but I believe that this is worth mentioning to the uninformed. The visuals have come a long way, and I believe that they are on par with ‘classic’ GNOME. The window borders have been simplified and given a sleek look, and the default icon set has been revamped since I last visited. More importantly, performance doesn’t appear to have suffered from this facelift, my netbook is pretty zippy compared to the previous mess with Unity and GNOME3, which I can only liken to a quadriplegic trying to crawl… in sand.

The windows are clean and unintrusive, leaving you to get on with actually using your computer.

I was also surprised to hear that official Ubuntu fork Ubuntu Studio has defaulted to the XFCE environment. It makes sense really, as Ubuntu Studio is designed to be stripped out and optimised for media production (it even has a lower latency kernel, so this is a step in the right direction).

Overall I’m pretty pleased with my new desktop, and I can only hope that it continues to mature in the way that it seems to be doing now, without the mid-life crisis that GNOME seems to be going under currently.

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Tags: desktop, gnome, kde, linux, xfce

About the Author

Stuart Wood Amateur graphic artist and photographer, works in Server Support and has a keen interest in web design and system building. Minecraft addict and father (not in that order).

Nick G

Xfce is great, but it needs a proper 3D compositing window manager. Xfwm4, the one that Xfce currently uses, is xrender based and has really bad tearing problems do to lack of Vsync (or Vblank). Just trying watching a video on youtube in high quality, or just dragging a window around the screen fast and you can see it plain as day.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is every Linux DE currently has it’s own list of problems, we’ve yet to establish one that can do everything a basic desktop should. We came close with GNOME 2, but then GNOME 3 came along and shattered it. Maybe Mate will save the day, but we’ll have to wait and see.
- FredSmithJr
  
  XFCE + compiz fusion = what it sounds like you are looking for
  - Nick G
    
    I run compiz fusion, but it’s as bloated and broken as a compositor can get. Any compositor that needs a dedicated “workarounds” menu should give you pause. Not to mention the fact that Compiz has been dropped from some of the major repositories lately due to lack of maintenance.
    
    We don’t have a “just works” DE, and that’s a problem
- winter
  
  It doesn’t *need* a 3D compositor — why do you need 3D effects on your desktop? Sure, they’re pretty and all, but I don’t fee that they drastically effect productivity. The xfwm4 compositor does a fine job of transparency without any slowdown.
  
  That said, you’re really left with 2 options: Compiz or KWin. And Compiz seems to be much, much more stable than Kwin (in my experience).
  
  If you’re really set on a 3D compositor your only other real option than using Compiz (I personally don’t consider Kwin a viable option) would be to go with Gnome3/Mutter.
  - Nick G
    
    You don’t understand the purpose of a 3D compositor. A 3D compositor doesn’t imply the need for 3D effects, or any effects at all really, it simply allows the compositor to properly sync with Vblank. This means that the video hardware won’t write a new frame while the display is still displaying the last one. This is necessary to prevent “tearing” of moving images, which can be pretty drastic depending on your video and display hardware.
    
    Currently, xrender doesn’t provide any way to do this, so only OpenGL based compositors can, thus the “3D” name. Xfce acknowledges this shortcoming but doesn’t have the man power to implement a 3D WM.
http://twitter.com/mikedk Michael Hastrup

imho if you want sugar-ish desktops go with KDE if you want lightness go xfce or lighter
Kristian Nygaard Jensen

I agree with Nick G. Mate could very well save the day. I use it every day, both at home and for work.
http://twitter.com/stuartwood1989 Stuart Wood

XFCE isn’t without it’s problems, but it’s the best I’ve used so far. I agree that the world needs a ‘just works’ solution though. Not all of us want to spend time configuring things to our taste.
- william smith
  
  You should try GNOME3 then, we are concentrating on making the default experience ‘just work’ without forcing people to waste time configuring things.
  - http://twitter.com/stuartwood1989 Stuart Wood
    
    I’ve tried GNOME3 and I actually quite liked it. The only problem I had was that it was slow on lower powered hardware, hence the move to XFCE.
http://www.facebook.com/unquietwiki Michael Adams

I’ve used XFCE as my dominant environment for Linux workstations for several years now: its only real drawback is when setting up wireless properly (usually have to add a better config in). Otherwise, if you replace its default office apps with LibreOffice, you have a sound system.
ajtaeht

Please learn the difference between “it’s” and “its”.
- http://twitter.com/stuartwood1989 Stuart Wood
  
  Hi ajtaeht. Are you referring to a mistake in the article? If so, which part are you referring to?
  - shah
    
    Wasn’t that difficult to find (CTRL+F) though
http://github.com/dag Dag Odenhall

I would argue that GNOME 3 with the Shell is possibly the most customizable desktop for Linux; see https://extensions.gnome.org/
http://www.facebook.com/randywhite86 Randy White

As a slackware user since 1996, I will say that fluxbox is my best friend lol. XFCE comes second.